Democrats are suppressing science ( does anyone care if it’s NOT Republicans doing it? )
Posted by Moonage on 03 Aug 2006 | Tagged as: Political Correctness
A while back, I responded to a post on Bad Astronomy when the author decided Republicans were destroying science. I got plenty of hate mail over my rebuttal. He then went at it again not too long ago, citing a resolution in South Dakota that legally meant absolutely nothing. So far, I’ve not seen him, or almost for that matter, comment on this from Junkscience.com:
California Attorney General Bill Lockyer is apparently trying to position California as a leader in the movement to silence scientific debate.
The State of California has filed a request in federal court to force auto makers to disclose all documents and communications between the companies and the so-called €śclimate skeptics.€ť California accuses the climate skeptics of playing a €śmajor role in spreading disinformation about global warming.€ť
The underlying litigation is a lawsuit by General Motors, DaimlerChrysler Corp., and the Association of Automobile Manufacturers against the state of California challenging the state€™s greenhouse gas emissions limits for new cars, light-duty trucks and sports utility vehicles (Central Valley Chrysler-Jeep Inc. v. Catherine Witherspoon, No. 04-6663).
California has been joined in the lawsuit by environmental activist groups including, the Sierra Club, Natural Resources Defense Council and Environmental Defense.
In a pre-trial discovery motion, California and the environmental groups asked for:
All DOCUMENTS relating to both GLOBAL WARMING and to any of the following individuals: S. Fred Singer, James Glassman, David Legates, Richard Lindzen, Patrick J. Michaels, Thomas Gale Moore, Robert C. Balling, Jr., Sherwood B. Idso, Craig D. Idso, Keith E. Idso, Sallie Baliunas, Paul Reiter, Chris Homer [sic], Ross McKitrick, Julian Morris, Frederick Seitz, Willie Soon, and Steven Milloy, including but not limited to:
- All DOCUMENTS relating to any communications between YOU and these individuals, and
- All DOCUMENTS relating to YOUR relationship (or the relationship of any automobile manufacturer or association of automobile manufacturers) with any of them, including but not limited to payments directly or indirectly from YOU or any other automobile manufacturer or association of automobile manufacturer to any of them.
The state then goes on to quote from Ross Gelbspan€™s book entitled, €śThe Heat Is On€ť……..
Now, I know peeps will shout that The Governator is Republican, but the Governator has no say-so in this matter. The Attorney General operates independently of the governor’s office. Bill Lockyer is a Democrat. Wanna delve into the joiners to the lawsuit a little bit? OK, let’s do!
The Sierra Club’s 2004 ( last full cycle ) donations to candidates reads:
| Abercrombie, Neil (D-HI) |
| Ackerman, Gary (D-NY) |
| Alexander, Bob (D-MI) |
| Allen, Tom (D-ME) |
| Andrews, Robert E (D-NJ) |
| Babbitt, Paul (D-AZ) |
| Bagwell, Tim (D-IL) |
| Baird, Brian (D-WA) |
| Baldwin, Tammy (D-WI) |
| Barbaro, Frank (D-NY) |
| Barbieri, Donald K (D-WA) |
| Barrow, John (D-GA) |
| Bean, Melissa (D-IL) |
| Becerra, Xavier (D-CA) |
| Berkley, Shelley (D-NV) |
| Berman, Howard L (D-CA) |
| Bishop, Timothy H (D-NY) |
| Blumenauer, Earl (D-OR) |
| Boehlert, Sherwood (R-NY) |
| Boswell, Leonard L (D-IA) |
| Boucher, Rick (D-VA) |
| Bowles, Erskine B (D-NC) |
| Boxer, Barbara (D-CA) |
| Boyda, Nancy E (D-KS) |
| Broomfield, Charles S (D-MO) |
| Brown, Corrine (D-FL) |
| Brown, Prince (D-FL) |
| Brown, Sherrod (D-OH) |
| Bruderly, David E (D-FL) |
| Capuano, Michael E (D-MA) |
| Cardin, Ben (D-MD) |
| Carson, Julia (D-IN) |
| Case, Ed (D-HI) |
| Castle, Michael N (R-DE) |
| Castor, Betty (D-FL) |
| Chandler, Ben (D-KY) |
| Clay, William L Jr (D-MO) |
| Clooney, Nick (D-KY) |
| Connealy, Matt (D-NE) |
| Conti, Joanna (D-CO) |
| Conyers, John Jr (D-MI) |
| Cooper, Jim (D-TN) |
| Crowley, Joseph (D-NY) |
| Cummings, Elijah E (D-MD) |
| Daly, Teresa Ann (D-MN) |
| Daschle, Tom (D-SD) |
| Davis, Danny K (D-IL) |
| Davis, Lincoln (D-TN) |
| DeFazio, Peter (D-OR) |
| DeGette, Diana (D-CO) |
| Delahunt, Bill (D-MA) |
| DeLauro, Rosa L (D-CT) |
| Dingell, John D (D-MI) |
| Doggett, Lloyd (D-TX) |
| Donnelly, Joe (D-IN) |
| Driscoll, Joseph Edward (D-PA) |
| Ellis, Robert James (D-GA) |
| Emanuel, Rahm (D-IL) |
| Engel, Eliot L (D-NY) |
| Eshoo, Anna (D-CA) |
| Etheridge, Bob (D-NC) |
| Evans, Lane (D-IL) |
| Farmer, Nancy (D-MO) |
| Farr, Sam (D-CA) |
| Fattah, Chaka (D-PA) |
| Feingold, Russell D (D-WI) |
| Fingerhut, Eric D (D-OH) |
| Ford, Harold E Jr (D-TN) |
| Free, Kalyn Cherie (D-OK) |
| Frost, Martin (D-TX) |
| Gallagher, Tom (D-NV) |
| Gilchrest, Wayne T (R-MD) |
| Gluba, Bill (D-IA) |
| Gordon, Bart (D-TN) |
| Grijalva, Raul M (D-AZ) |
| Gutierrez, Luis V (D-IL) |
| Harkin, Tom (D-IA) |
| Harman, Jane (D-CA) |
| Hastings, Alcee L (D-FL) |
| Higgins, Brian M (D-NY) |
| Hill, Baron (D-IN) |
| Hinchey, Maurice (D-NY) |
| Hoeffel, Joseph M (D-PA) |
| Holt, Rush (D-NJ) |
| Honda, Mike (D-CA) |
| Hooley, Darlene (D-OR) |
| Hoyer, Steny H (D-MD) |
| Inslee, Jay R (D-WA) |
| Israel, Steve (D-NY) |
| Jackson Lee, Sheila (D-TX) |
| Jackson, Jesse Jr (D-IL) |
| Jacobsen, Linda F (D-MO) |
| Jennings, Jon Paul (D-IN) |
| Johnson, Eddie Bernice (D-TX) |
| Johnson, Nancy L (R-CT) |
| Johnson, Paul W (D-IA) |
| Johnson, Timothy V (R-IL) |
| Jones, Stephanie Tubbs (D-OH) |
| Kaptur, Marcy (D-OH) |
| Keever, Patricia (D-NC) |
| Kennedy, Bryan L (D-WI) |
| Kennedy, Patrick J (D-RI) |
| Kildee, Dale E (D-MI) |
| Kilpatrick, Carolyn Cheeks (D-MI) |
| Kind, Ron (D-WI) |
| King, Gary (D-NM) |
| Kirk, Mark (R-IL) |
| Kucinich, Dennis J (D-OH) |
| Lampson, Nick (D-TX) |
| Langevin, Jim (D-RI) |
| Lantos, Tom (D-CA) |
| Larsen, Rick (D-WA) |
| Larson, John B (D-CT) |
| Leach, Jim (R-IA) |
| Lee, Barbara (D-CA) |
| Levin, Sander (D-MI) |
| Lewis, John (D-GA) |
| LoBiondo, Frank A (R-NJ) |
| Lofgren, Zoe (D-CA) |
| Lowey, Nita M (D-NY) |
| Lynch, Stephen F (D-MA) |
| Majette, Denise L (D-GA) |
| Maloney, Carolyn B (D-NY) |
| Markey, Edward J (D-MA) |
| Marshall, Jim (D-GA) |
| Matheson, Jim (D-UT) |
| McCarthy, Carolyn (D-NY) |
| McCollum, Betty (D-MN) |
| McDermott, Jim (D-WA) |
| McGovern, James P (D-MA) |
| McKinney, Cynthia A (D-GA) |
| McNerney, Jerry (D-CA) |
| Meehan, Marty (D-MA) |
| Meeks, Gregory W (D-NY) |
| Menendez, Robert (D-NJ) |
| Michaud, Mike (D-ME) |
| Mikulski, Barbara A (D-MD) |
| Millender-McDonald, Juanita (D-CA) |
| Miller, Brad (D-NC) |
| Miller, George (D-CA) |
| Miller, Tony (D-KY) |
| Mongiardo, Daniel (D-KY) |
| Moore, Dennis (D-KS) |
| Moore, Gwen (D-WI) |
| Moran, Jim (D-VA) |
| Morrison, Richard (D-TX) |
| Murphy, Lois (D-PA) |
| Murray, Patty (D-WA) |
| Nadler, Jerrold (D-NY) |
| Napolitano, Grace (D-CA) |
| Neal, Richard E (D-MA) |
| Obama, Barack (D-IL) |
| Obey, David R (D-WI) |
| Olver, John W (D-MA) |
| Owens, Major R (D-NY) |
| Pallone, Frank Jr (D-NJ) |
| Pascrell, Bill Jr (D-NJ) |
| Pastor, Ed (D-AZ) |
| Payne, Donald M (D-NJ) |
| Pelosi, Nancy (D-CA) |
| Pomeroy, Leigh Charles (D-MN) |
| Price, David (D-NC) |
| Quigley, Lisa (D-CA) |
| Rahall, Nick (D-WV) |
| Ramstad, Jim (R-MN) |
| Rangel, Charles B (D-NY) |
| Reid, Harry (D-NV) |
| Rodriguez, Ciro D (D-TX) |
| Romero, Richard M (D-NM) |
| Ross, Dave (D-WA) |
| Rothman, Steven R (D-NJ) |
| Roybal-Allard, Lucille (D-CA) |
| Ryan, Tim (D-OH) |
| Sabo, Martin Olav (D-MN) |
| Salazar, Ken (D-CO) |
| Sanchez, Linda (D-CA) |
| Sanchez, Loretta (D-CA) |
| Sanders, Bernie (I-VT) |
| Saxton, Jim (R-NJ) |
| Schakowsky, Jan (D-IL) |
| Schiff, Adam (D-CA) |
| Schneider, Jan (D-FL) |
| Schrader, Virginia Waters (D-PA) |
| Schultz, Debbie Wasserman (D-FL) |
| Schwartz, Allyson (D-PA) |
| Scott, David (D-GA) |
| Serrano, Jose E (D-NY) |
| Shays, Christopher (R-CT) |
| Sherman, Brad (D-CA) |
| Slaughter, Louise M (D-NY) |
| Smith, Adam (D-WA) |
| Smith, Jeff (D-MO) |
| Snyder, Vic (D-AR) |
| Solis, Hilda L (D-CA) |
| Stark, Pete (D-CA) |
| Strickland, Ted (D-OH) |
| Tauscher, Ellen (D-CA) |
| Tenenbaum, Inez (D-SC) |
| Thomas, David Jeffrey (D-CO) |
| Thompson, Bennie G (D-MS) |
| Thompson, Mike (D-CA) |
| Tierney, John F (D-MA) |
| Udall, Mark (D-CO) |
| Udall, Tom (D-NM) |
| Van Dam, Paul (D-UT) |
| Van Hollen, Chris (D-MD) |
| Velazquez, Nydia M (D-NY) |
| Visclosky, Pete (D-IN) |
| Waters, Maxine (D-CA) |
| Watson, Diane E (D-CA) |
| Watt, Melvin L (D-NC) |
| Waxman, Henry A (D-CA) |
| Weed, Al (D-VA) |
| Weiner, Anthony D (D-NY) |
| Wetterling, Patty (D-MN) |
| Wexler, Robert (D-FL) |
| Wolfe, Dorothea Anne (D-NJ) |
| Woolsey, Lynn (D-CA) |
| Wu, David (D-OR) |
If you don’t feel like tabulating them all yourself, I’ll do it for you. That’s 207 Democrats and 11 Republicans. That’s $364,763 given to Democrats, $24,187 to Republicans. That’s a 95% to 5% Democrat majority. You can research who gives to The Sierra Club as well, I’ll bet you my bottom dollar it’s about the same ratio of Democrats.
The Natural Resources Defense Council Action Fund opposes everything Bush on their website. I think it’s safe to say these people aren’t die-hard Republicans. I can delve deeper if anyone requests.
Environmental Defense is primarily concerned with advocating Global Warming prevention, and have for a very long time, so I’ll leave judgment of their politics for them for now as they seem to have a history of working WITH both parties.
So, there seems to be a TON of Democrats that seem to think it’s more than OK to use the law to shut up people who question what they don’t want you to question. And worse, to prevent science from exploring both sides of an issue if they don’t agree with one of those sides.
Seems to me this is a hell of a lot worse than passing some silly resolution in South Dakota. Somehow, I bet someone else doesn’t agree with me. After all, it’s ONLY Republicans that are killing science. Anything else would mean they are practicing partisan politics now wouldn’t it? And, just as bad, it’s flaming evidence that Chris Mooney is a partisan political hack pandering to those who already agreed with him or suckering those that don’t care to research issues for themselves.
8 Comments »
on 03 Aug 2006 at 11:09 pm 1.Skul said …
Typical, emotional rather than rational responce from the progressive left.
on 03 Aug 2006 at 11:56 pm 2.cyohey said …
Democrats are suppressing science ( does anyone care if it’s NOT Republicans doing it? )
nice..
on 04 Aug 2006 at 1:12 am 3.Phil Plait, aka The Bad Astronomer said …
Sigh.
You seem to have some really odd notions about me. For one, I don’t keep up with every single suppression of science. I can’t. I had not heard the example you used.
Second, as I pointed out to you before, the Republicans are the ones in power right now, and so they are the ones who are in a position to suppress science. If the Democrats do it, then I’ll hammer them. In fact, I was not terribly kind to Barney Frank when he wanted to choke some of NASA’s money.
Third, junkscience.com is precisely that. You should read a bit of the history of Steve Milloy, who writes it. He also writes for Foxnews.com, so he’s hardly unbiased.
And if you are still denying global warming is real, then really there’s not much left to say.
on 04 Aug 2006 at 11:08 am 4.Moonage
said …
There’s a slight difference in saying “Republicans” are destroying science and saying Barney Frank is destroying science. When you lump a group together that includes me, I take offense. When you single one person out, I can’t take offense.
I’m not making a comment on whether global warming is real or not. I’m making a comment on Democrat efforts to suppress part of the research into whether it is ot not. IMO, that’s a scary thing to have happen. The Republicans are not in power EVERYWHERE. As I’ve noted before, suppression occurs whenever it’s allowed to happen, it does not have any party affiliation. If you want to protect the scientific community, as you can much more so than I, then I would hope you’d blast this effort by the California Attorney General for what it is, suppression of science, and completely drop the political angles of what’s going on these days. Just saying “Republicans” or “Democrats” doesn’t do any good when people are trying to address an issue. Attacking Barney Frank individually is. It gives people a specific contact. In this case, the specific contact is the CA AG, whether he’s Democrat or Republican means nothing to me. The fact he’s practicing Dark Ages philosophy and people need to be aware of what he’s doing whether they agree with his argument or not. And, think of it this way, if man-made global warming is a fact, then science should be able to prove that fact. If it is a fact, then using science to prove it’s not won’t work. So, global warming advocates should welcome the research instead of trying to stifle it. And, drop the Republican paranioa, Democrats control 67% of the state legislatures regardless of who’s in DC. And, here’s an insight you can use, states control research funding much more so than the feds do. Ask any university where the majority of their funding comes from.
on 04 Aug 2006 at 12:19 pm 5.American Phoenix
said …
What Phil also fails to admit, if he realizes it, is that the vast majority of the judiciary is controlled by Democrat judges - which is precisely why this battle is taking place in the courts. What Democrats can’t get in the legislature, they seek through the courts.
That this suit has been filed at all is, frankly, appalling. It’s a virtual inquisition of anyone who is critical of the “science” of global warming.
I listened to the global warming hearings on CSPAN recently and have read portions of the recent report. There are serious problems with the hockey stick, but they aren’t going to be addressed because the whole thing has been turned into a political football. Much of the reason is because of the competition for grant moneys, which has resulted in the outright suppression of scientific work that contradicts the global warming theorists.
on 04 Aug 2006 at 4:27 pm 6.Clint said …
I’ll readily admit that Democrats are scum just as much as Republicans. They are both, in the end, slaves to corporate power and their own greed - they only vary in degrees of despicability.
on 04 Aug 2006 at 5:42 pm 7.Moonage
